A place to share my creative pursuits

Retro Craft… or the kind of craft I did in my childhood

It seems like the crafts of my childhood are rearing their heads again. It is a fondness for times past, or were they just great activities that have been discovered by new kids.

My mum used to work for a craft distributor in the 70s and 80s. Over the years there she bought bits and pieces and socked them away for her retirement. She has retired, but is too busy to sit down with her granny blanket on her knees and craft! So she asked me to look through the boxes and see if there was anything I could make use of (imagine me rubbing my hands together with glee!).

Anyone who follows my blog knows I have recently learnt to crochet and have been enjoying it (maybe a bit too much). Well, amongst the supplies stashed away was ribbon straw… lots of ribbon straw.

When I was a kid it was used with plastic mesh to make coasters, tissue boxes, baskets and all sorts of things. But it was also used to make market bags (another of those things I have become addicted to liked since starting to crochet). They had hard plastic handles and were used to carry groceries before the standard supermarket green bags.

There were a few of the handles in my mum’s stash, but they hadn’t travelled well, so I came up with another way to make them…

I have a stash of left over of 10ply (4ply US) cotton which feels great as handles for bags, so this is the outcome. I am experimenting with shape and size for the bags and will do the same for the handles, but they work great together. The rayon ribbon straw is durable and sparkly (a must) and the cotton makes it soft to hold and carry.

Once I get the handles the way I want them, I’ll be doing a giveaway, so please keep posted if you like the look of these retro bags!

Another special little thing I found in mum’s stash were wooden beads. I remember going to the Myart warehouse when I was a kid and helping to look out orders. I loved the bead aisle. Bags upon bags of beads, all different colours and sizes.

I feel really lucky to have some of these beads in my stash now. They are beautifully made (made in Japan) and I can’t wait to incorporate them into something I make. Thinking… thinking…

So, many thanks to my mum for sharing her craft stash. There was more, but that is for another day.